Software Defined Wireless Device Management

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor to: switch a client device from being associated with a first access point to being associated with a second access point during a first period of time; determine a number of times the client device has switched the client device's association with a number of access points within the first period of time; determine whether the number of times exceeds a threshold value for the first period of time; determine whether a trigger to switch the client device to being associated with a third access point has occurred, wherein the trigger occurs responsive to the client device being a member of a same multicast group as client devices associated with the third access point; and responsive to determining that the number of times does not exceed the threshold value and that the trigger has occurred, switch the client device from being associated with the second access point to being associated with the third access point.

2. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: responsive at least to determining that the number of times exceeds the threshold value, refraining from causing the client device to switch the association with the second access point to the association with the third access point.

3. The medium of claim 1 , wherein causing the client device to switch the association with the second access point to the association with the third access point is further responsive to determining that a service provided by the second access point does not meet a minimum criteria.

4. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value for the first period of time is based on device type.

5. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the threshold value for the first period of time is based on one or more of: a user role; a traffic type; an application type; session information; a client roaming activity; a device fingerprint; and a device signature.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, causes a processor to: determine for a first client device of a plurality of client devices a corresponding first configuration which indicates when a first access point associated with the first client device is able to be modified; based on the first configuration, determine that an association of the first client device with the first access point should be maintained; determine for a second client device of the plurality of client devices a corresponding second configuration which indicates when a second access point associated with the second client device is able to be modified, wherein the second configuration is different than the first configuration; determine whether a trigger to switch the client device to being associated with a third access point has occurred, wherein the trigger occurs responsive to the client device being a member of a same multicast group as client devices associated with the third access point; and based on the second configuration and the trigger, determine that an association of the second client device with the second access point should be modified to an association with the third access point.

7. The medium of claim 6 , wherein the first configuration indicates that an association of the first client device can never be caused to be modified by a network device.

8. The medium of claim 6 , wherein the first configuration indicates a maximum number of times that the association of the first client device with the first access point can be modified within a particular period of time.

9. The medium of claim 6 , wherein the second configuration indicates a maximum number of times that the association of the second client device with the second access point can be modified within a particular period of time.

10. The medium of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise automatically determining the first configuration and the second configuration based on one or more attributes associated with the first client device and the second client device, respectively.

11. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the attributes associated with the first client device comprise a device type.

12. The medium of claim 10 , wherein the attributes associated with the first client device comprise one or more of: a user role; a traffic type; an application type; session information; a client roaming activity; a device fingerprint; and a device signature.

13. The medium of claim 6 , wherein determining that the association of the second client device with the second access point should be modified to the association with the third access point is further based on determining that the client device is on a voice call with poor quality and determining that the first configuration permits at least one more modification during the voice call.

14. The medium of claim 6 , wherein determining that the association of the first client device with the first access point should not be modified to the association with the second access point is further based on determining that the first client device is on a voice call and determining that the second configuration prohibits modification during the voice call.

15. The medium of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise responsive to determining that the second client device is on an active voice call: causing, by the second access point, at least a third device to switch association with the second access point to association to the third access point.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors causes the one or more hardware processors to: determine one or more attributes corresponding to a client device associated with a first access point; determine whether a trigger to switch the client device to being associated with a second access point has occurred, wherein the trigger occurs responsive to the client device being a member of a same multicast group as client devices associated with the second access point; based on the one or more attributes and the trigger, determine that the association of the client device with the first access point should be switched to an association with the second access point; based on the one or more attributes, select a mechanism, of a plurality of mechanisms, for causing the client device to switch an association with the first access point to an association with the second access point; and use the selected mechanism to cause the client device to switch from the association with the first access point to the association with the second access point.

17. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the selected mechanism comprises the first access point transmitting de-authentication message or a disassociation message corresponding to the client device.

18. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the selected mechanism comprises the first access point transmitting instructions to the client device to associate with the second access point.

19. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the selected mechanism for causing the client device to switch associations comprises configuring the first access point to reject one or more requests from the client device and configuring the second access point to accept the one or more requests from the client device.

20. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the selected mechanism comprises a particular time during which the client device can be caused to switch association with the first access point to association with the second access point.